Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2539 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow parents to admit a minor child between the ages of fifteen and seventeen in non-emergency situations for in-patient treatment at a mental health facility.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the measure as written from the Department of Health and the Office of the Public Defender.

Your Committee finds that parents need to have the authority to admit their children for psychiatric non-emergency situations. Individuals suffering from the onset of mental illness or suicidal ideation do not simply comply with physicians or parental assistance to receive needed psychiatric treatment.

Your Committee has amended this measure by adopting the suggestions of the Department of Health and defining "neutral factfinder" as a board certified psychiatrist or child psychiatrist for purposes of admission to a hospital or hospital-based program, or a Qualified Mental Health Professional as defined by Medicaid for purposes of admission to community-based or therapeutic group home residential program. Your Committee additionally amended this measure by requiring the neutral factfinder to certify in the evaluation for admission that the admission is appropriate for mental health treatment of the youth and is the least restrictive alternative setting needed for treatment.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2539, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2539, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.